Help Sitemap Home Skip Navigation Contact Us Disability Statement


Science is vital, but humanities have a relevance beyond measure

Premium Article !

To read this article in full you must have registered and have a Premium Content Subscription with the The Scotsman site.

Subscribe
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image
Click on thumbnail to view image

Published Date: 02 July 2008
By Steve Fuller
Professor of sociology, Warwick University
NOWADAYS, in country after country, policymakers have become obsessed with the need to strengthen science education. But what about the humanities – all those disciplines (literature, history, languages, and so forth) whose relevance to economic competitiveness is not so obvious?
We need the humanities only if we are committed to the idea of humanity. If the humanities have become obsolete, then it may be that humanity is losing its salience.

I do not mean that we are becoming "less human" in the sense of "inhumane." If a...



Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 01 July 2008 9:10 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
 
1

Beth Boyle,

NY 02/07/2008 04:28:49
Yes they do and make a well rounded person.
2

Neil,

Glasgow 02/07/2008 12:07:58
Fortunately the students of literature, history, languages, and so forth can now also study on the internet. Where would they be without scientists to give them such things?
3

Beth Boyle,

NY 02/07/2008 13:41:50
That is technology not hard science, Neil. It's all important. A well rounded education makes a better citizen.
4

Neil,

Glasgow 02/07/2008 16:29:02
Once it is made it is always, by definition, technology. It is science before that.

Our entire civil service depends on the theory that you can understand science or you can be a "well rounded citizen" but not both & that the rounded ones should run the country.

If you think about it you will see that, by definition, you cannot be a "well rounded citizen" if you don't know science & there are far fewer arts graduates who understand string theory than there are scientists who appreciate clasical music (& to be fair perhaps than there are string theorists who would claim to really understand it).

I remember a couple of years ago on Newsnight during an item on a satellite with a nuclear generator, in which Newsnight were playing up some nonsense about it crashing, the scientist explained that orbital mechanics meant an object in orbit couldn't crash adding (as a joke) "unless gravity changed". The Newsnight interviewer jumped on that asking "why didn't you prepare for that eventuality".

Now which of those 2 was the well rounded person?

 

Comment on this Story

 

In order to post comments you must Register or Sign In

 
 
RSS Feed of this article's comments
Delivery formats: RSS, Atom, Javascript & Email
 
  

 
 


Sister Newspapers:
Press Complaints Commission

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s Code of Practice. If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the PCC by clicking here.